The American Board of Anesthesiologists has issued a blow to physicians who assist in executing condemned prisoners through lethal injection.
The board has ordered its members to refuse to aid in capital punishment or lose their certification.
For years the American Medical Association (AMA) has vehemently disagreed with physicians who use their profession to aid executioners. “The line that’s been drawn in the sand is clear,” said Bryan Liang, a law professor at California Western School of Law and a professor of anesthesiology at University of California, San Diego. “They’re definitely letting doctors know, if you cross it, we’re coming for you.”
THE THREE-DRUG COCKTAIL
From 2007 to 2008 executions were stopped in the United States, then, the United States Supreme Court decided a Kentucky case about the widely used three-drug cocktail. The court ruled its usage did not violate the 8th Amendment’s constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Death penalty critics argue people being injected may go through horrible pain because one of the three doses used in many states paralyzes you while creating a powerful burning sensation. This makes it impossible to scream out for help.
“Thus far no doctors have been disciplined,” AMA Board Secretary Mark Rockoff said. Although numerous anesthesiologists who have assisted as execution consultants or testified in capital punishment cases, he stated the AMA’s actions have had a chilling effect.
The anesthesiologists board’s decision raises several questions by death penalty opponents who welcome their action concerning lethal injections. Supports of capital punishment believe doctors are not needed during the process; they contend the dosages can be done by prison employees.
DOCTOR MUST BE PRESENT
“If I were lying on the gurney and someone was pumping me with a paralyzing drug. I would want somebody there who knew what they were doing,” stated Ty Alper, associate director of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law. 3,200 prisoners are housed on death rows in America. Several of the 50 executions done each year from 2008 all have used lethal injection.
Almost half of the 35 states doing executions, such as Virginia and North Carolina, have mandated a doctor be present during all executions. In others, doctors insert catheters and install the three drug-cocktail. Many states recruit both doctors and anesthesiologists, permitting them to take part of the lethal injection process, but the identities of executioners are hidden.
“Many think it’s a sound argument, saying you need a doctor to do this,” stated Michael Rutherford, president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, supporters of the death penalty. “Actually you really don’t need a doctor to do this.”
Rockoff concluded, “Always remember we are healers not executioners.”
